1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to management of computer databases, and more specifically to management of user-definable databases of computer systems and networks.
2. Description of the Background
Administration of computer systems and networks can be a complex task involving the management of numerous user accounts (including user names, user passwords, user privileges, etc.), various system devices (device names, device addresses, etc.), and other features and characteristics of the computing system. Various software tools have been developed to simplify the management of a computing system/network by assisting a system administrator with the management of the computing system/network. Examples of conventional network management/administration software tools include Sun Microsystems AdminSuite and AdminTool which can be used, for example, in conjunction with Sun Microsystems Solaris operating system. The network management software permits a network administrator to monitor and manage user accounts, passwords, machine or network IP addresses, host names, devices, etc.
Conventionally, the network management software are provided with databases containing information on the computing systems/network configuration and characteristics. These databases are standard databases for a particular computing system or are specific databases for the particular network management software. Conventionally, these databases are xe2x80x9chard codedxe2x80x9d as predefined databases recognized by the network management software. In this sense, the network management software is adapted only to recognize and manage the specific and predefined set of system or network databases. Conventional network management software does not permit access, use, or interaction with databases which have not been predefined or hard coded into the network management software. For instance, if a system administrator created a specialized database, conventional network management software could not be used for accessing and manipulating the specialized database.
What is needed is a network management tool which can recognize, interact, and manipulate a user-defined database as well as conventional hard coded databases.
In accordance with this invention, the above problems have been solved by a system, method, and computer program product for managing and manipulating user-defined and system databases in a computing system. A database interface, which can be a graphical user interface, accesses a database configuration file containing descriptions of the contents of each of the databases. The database interface interprets the contents of each database in accordance with the configuration file, and provides for user access and manipulation of the contents of the databases.
According to one broad aspect of the present invention, a method for managing a plurality of computer databases is presented. A database configuration file containing information regarding each of the plurality of computer databases is provided. An interface to the plurality of computer databases is provided for permitting manipulation of the plurality of computer databases by a user. The interface accessing the database configuration file for information relating to the content and format of each database. A manipulation step manipulates one of the computer databases in accordance with a command from the user.
The above steps in another implementation of the invention are provided as an article of manufacture, i.e., a computer storage medium containing a computer program of instructions for performing the above-described steps.
The great utility of the present invention is that various different user-defined databases can be accessed and manipulated by a network management software program.
The foregoing and other features, utilities and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.